my newly built pc is having all kinds of problems

ok heres whats going on, i just finished building my new pc and i had it up and running for a little while i had installed windows xp and it was lookin good. then i encountered the first problem, the computer shut off and restarted with an error report saying: the system has recovered from a serious error. i thought ok whatever and continued installing drivers and whatnot. this repeated several times before i realized this was a problem and got worried. i figured id just start over again, reformatting the hd and reinstalling windows. well guess what? now it wont even let me do that. i get to the windows setup and either while im formatting the hd or the setup is beggining, the system either restarts randomly or a blue screen comes up with all this mumbojumbo on it. somebody please help.

specs are:
amd athlon xp 3200+
512 mb ram (which it read as 480 mb of ram when it worked at first)
20 gb hard drive thats from my old pc (which im guessing could be the problem)

by the way, when the system worked at first i did install a video card and was having problems with the drivers installing so i dunno that could have somethin to do with it i guess.

you also stated that you have a 512MB stick that is recognized as 480MB.. where does it recognize as 480 in windows or bios.

Do you have onboard video? if so that could explain the 32MB of memory not showing up. The onboard video gets its memory from your installed 512MB stick.

You say it comes up with "blue screen comes up with all this mumbojumbo on it" exactly what is the mumbojumbo you are getting. although vague the BSOD will give hints to what to look at.

Click to expand...

no i havent tried that but i will.
it recognizes it as 480 in windows.
yes theres onboard video and i hadnt thought of that.
the blue screen... i cant remember what it says and i dont want to go and wait for that screen to pop up again but when it does ill be sure and tell you.
whats BSOD?
btw this is the first system ive built.

i was finally able to re install windows and the random restarts with the error reports started again. this is what the error report says: the system has recovered from a serious error. and the details are: BCCode: 1000007f BCP1: 0000000D BCP2:00000000 BCP3: 000000000 BCP4: 0000000000 OSver: 5_1_2600 SP: 2_0 Product: 768_1. can anyone tell me what this means?

make sure the memory you purchased is compatible with your motherboard. RTFM and determine what brands and speeds are compatible with your system. When diagnosing problems with new systems, strip everything down to the base components.

In your case, disconnect the hard disk and do a cold start with just the motherboard, memory, and videocard. You should have a good POST. If you pass post, then check your settings in BIOS. What does the motherboard manufactuer recommend?

ok heres an update:
i have windows up and running and the random restarts continue. i have after hours of research found that a lot of people are having the same problem and its not hardware related. windows is to blame and microsofts site has a patch that supposedly fixes it. but i cant install this patch because i have windows xp with sp2 preintegrated and the patch needs no service packs installed to to work (which means that i already have this patch in my service pack 2 and its not working) i wanted to uninstall sp2 but i cant because of it being preintegrated (believe me ive tried every way possible). i did find an alternative way of solving the problem which is to set the virtual mem paging file to 0mb. i did that and yaaay! it stopped the problem. but guess what i cant run any of my games with the paging file set to zero. so im pretty much stuck i guess, unless anyone comes up with a solution.

The way I read it is the reason you can't install the patch is because SP1 is supposed to have already corrected the problem. So there would be no point to installing the patch since it isn't supposed to apply to you.

That said, I would consider reinstalling Windows. Some file or files may have been corrupted.

ive already tried reinstalling windows and the same problem occurs every time. the motherboard is a Winfast K7S741MG-6L, and like i said im positive its not hardware related because ive been reading about this issue for a couple of days now and microsoft has admitted that its windows. and plus i mean all my parts are brand new except for HD and vid card. i do have this one other problem id like to mention now that maybe one of you could help me with. im guessing it has to do with bad/outdated drivers or no drivers at all for a certain device. when i try to run call of duty or sometimes when the computer restarts i get the BSOD and it says:

i really need help. now im just downright frustrated. so many problems!! im getting all these errors and i have tried everything i can think of, you name it, everything from checking all my hardware to downloading different and new drivers for everything. im gonna do what everyone else does and post those minidump files. if anyone can figure out one or more of my problems by looking at them i would greatly appreciate it. here they are:

thanks for the replies, i managed to fix a lot of the BSOD errors (i think...so far so good) by entering BIOS and choosing load optimal settings. before that i had been fooling around with BIOS changing various things just to see their effect (stupid thing to do). anyways now im back to the one error that i started with, the system has recovered from a serious error message after a random restart. i can now actually run games for a minute or 2 now that i did that BIOS thing.

@spider:
i have a GeForce FX 5200 256 mb pci, will that cause problems??

its only a 250w ISO-350, let me guess, not enough power right? came with the case. what do you mean by 12v rail... if you mean on the outside of the psu theres a little round white sticker that says 18A... er i dunno what does 12v rail mean?

There should be a little table on the side that has 12v and under it some numbers like watts and amps. You have a 3.3v rail, a 5 volt rail and a 12 volt rail inside your PSU that the cables connect to and then lead out and into your PC. What kind of video card did you plug the PSU into?

Generally, the PSU's that come with a case are of very poor quality (literally worth about $5-$10) and are a hazard to the rest of a system. I strongly advise anyone that builds a PC to buy a good, quality PSU with plenty of watts and amps. What usually happens, however, is this advise is ignored and they buy all kinds of top of the line equipment and decide to go cheap with the PSU.

What follows is countless posts about weird BSODS, system freezes and violent crashes. Sometimes, after several posts like that, we hear about the bright spark, loud bang and burning smell in a new post titled "Did I Fry My New Build?!" Then you have to lead the sad builder (usually a new builder, since the more experienced know not to buy a cheap PSU) through the ugly task of trying to find out what in his/her $1200 worth of PC components is salvageable.

The mobo is more than likely toast but maybe the CPU survived. Probably the RAM is screwed too. The crappy case is OK but the $5 PSU, sadly, committed suicide when taking out the mobo and RAM. So, drop another $300-$400 replacing the fried stuff and NOW spend $65 on a decent PSU. Lesson learned. LOL

That is a lousy PSU and I would guess it is the cause of your troubles. Of course this is a guess but I would recommend that even if it isn't causing the current problem it will almost certainly cause problems in the future so should be replaced regardless. With your system specs as they presently are, a solid 350-400 watt unit should suffice.